Gilly show sinks Bangalore; play-off hopes alive
As they say, great players save their best when it matters most, and Adam Gilchrist just reiterated the same. For major part of IPL-4, he has been a passenger in the Punjab top order but today was the occasion for him to light up the picturesque Dharamshala. And, he did that in some style, in an innings that spanned 55 balls the Australian hammered 106 runs to take his team to a massive 232, the highest team total this year. His countryman Shaun Marsh played a pretty 49-ball 79 to wrest the Orange Cap from his teammate Paul Valthaty. Any chance of a Bangalore fightback evaporated as soon as Chris Gayle failed for the first time in seven matches.
Punjab now have a realistic chance of securing a top-four berth after four back to back victories. The huge victory margin of 111 runs has also improved the health of their net run rate that may well decide the eventual qualifiers in case teams finish on same points. In the process, Bangalore’s seven match winning streak was snapped as the target proved to be a monumental task for their batting order on a track that offered prodigious swing for the pacers. At no point, did the visitors threaten the target as Piyush Chawla (4 for 17) and Ryan Harris had Bangalore batsmen on the backfoot all the time. Harris dented Bangalore early removing Gayle and skipper Virat Kohli early while Chawla’s variations were too hot for middle order to handle with Mohammad Kaif removed by a beauty that bounced and turned sharply needing nifty work from Gilly behind the stumps. None of them picked Chawla’s googly as Bangalore slipped to one of their worst defeats this season. For the first time this year, Bangalore lost all of its ten wickets to emphasize Punjab’s total domination of the proceedings.
Ensconced at a high altitude, Dharamshala lived upto to its billing as a high scoring ground as ball travelled big and long when Australian duo of Gilchrisht and Marsh were at the crease. The pair put on record 206-highest in the IPL history for any wicket-to give their fans plenty to cheer about.
Bangalore bowlers, without seasoned pacer Zaheer Khan, started off well having home team pegged at 30 for Valthaty’s wicket after five overs. In fact, Gilly had only two runs off first nine balls he faced but that didn’t count for much as left hander found his hitting arc and form to blast his way to one of the great centuries in the format.
When Gilly smashed Johan Vanderwath for a four through covers to bring up his century, team owner Priety Zinta celebrated the moment with tears welling up in her eyes. Punjab skipper took a liking to Charles Langeveldt and S Aravind as Bangalore wilted under Gilly-Marsh assault to dish up some hittable stuff. He hit as many as nine maximums most of them through mid-wicket and eight hits to the fence in what can be dubbed as the most incredible from a man at 42.
Marsh, on other hand, was at his prettiest best pleasing to eyes as the left hander looted runs with all the grace in the world. He played second fiddle to his captain’s fireworks in the early stages of the partnership but ran amok to give Vanderwath the punishment of a lifetime. His third over had a split of 6,6,4,4,4,6 with last hit as clean as anything, the left hander presented full face to a good length ball for a straight six.
Before the match, all the superlatives were reserved for Gayle but the kind of innings Gilly put up in a crunch game, the Australian legend will have all of them.
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